Mental health care deal reached
Casey Seiler
Albany
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office has reached a settlement with insurance company EmblemHealth Inc. that will require it to take steps to make sure it's meeting the provisions of Timothy's Law, the 2006 measure designed to ensure parity between mental and physical health coverage.
The settlement comes after an investigation found that the company, which has 3.4 million customers, treated behavioral health care claims more rigorously than medical and surgical claims.
The attorney general's office said the company denied coverage of residential treatment to a young woman with a severe case of anorexia nervosa, a potentially fatal eating disorder, and turned down requests for coverage of substance abuse treatment on the grounds that the person was not experiencing "life-threatening withdrawal" — not a standard hurdle for patients seeking relief.
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Mental-health-care-deal-reached-5607850.php